Friday, November 23, 2012

Stone Baby - Present, Yet Altogether Elsewhere (sicsic037)

something sweet and dank for this trip into unknown. peace and love to my friends at Humboldt Relief :)

Present, Yet Altogether Elsewhere may be the heaviest tape in the new Sicsic batch. Stone Baby is the excellent duo of Jen Marquart and Cory E. Card, the proprietors of Rochester, NY label, //cae-sur-a//. At times, the sound buttresses the listener. It is highly evocative, consisting of thick, heavy drones, scraped strings, ringing tones, and an otherworldly atmosphere. Beautiful music tends to permeate the room, and Present, Yet Altogether Elsewhere succeeds in that regard. Unequivocally, an entrancing trip. So, go for the full trip - perhaps trichomes and all? But leave your baggage at the door because one should operate lightly in this climate. As the first track commences, there is nothing that would suggest a quivering, haunting sound; rather, the ethereal strings bathed in effects ring uninhibitedly into the atmosphere. Then, something dubious appears, discordant and fraying. A welter of dreadful sound is juxtaposed to the glistening strings, and the result is chilling - gorgeous! The recurrence spawns thick, heavy sounds that emanate from recesses of the body. Explosive strings move pensively, and it temporarily abates. Again, in the beginning of the second track peaceful, ringing tones abound. The ascending sound swells in the uncertain environment, fraying and becoming more intense. Then, it arrives, descending from an earlier time - inside the squirming sound something strives to be free. On the honest bag nugometer, this track is rated five purple king kush nugs out of five. This is exactly that which I seek in music - high quality stuff! In the next track, solitary strings reside inside the drone, which has the quality of proceeding uniformly, yet flaking, as the sonic beast hovers ominously, whispering pleas and cries from yesteryear. Eventually, it settles into a beam of drifting energy, remnants from another time temporarily amplified. As it approaches the zenith, other elements become audible. The effect is stunning. A thick drone swells and recedes, trying to morph in shape, as several layers of resonating strings join the drone.

This one is highly recommended - Sicsic in the zone. Present, Yet Altogether Elsewhere is an awesome tape - a real head trip! Produced in a hand-numbered edition of 85 cassettes, and displaying the beautiful artwork of Johannes Schebler, secure your copy through Sicsic.